Railroad crossing



' ALEXANDER RAILROAD CROSSING 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 9, 1928 v 1 711977277 lieu/Ls Chara/mew Aug. 5, 1930. ALEXANDER 1,772,022

RAILROAD CROSSING Filed Nov. 9, 1928 2 Sheets-Shoat 2 III/l,

} 7732671 lav/ZS xa/zdar T20 crossing construction itself, but also to elimare Compressed by movement of the bars 60 nations tending to increase the general efiidisposed in position as shown, between the 65 I set forth and claimed, and shown in the acp ints or places shown.

Patented Aug. 5, 1930 I i i I I UNITED sTArss PATENT OFFICE;

Application filed November 9, 1928. Serial No. 318,148.

' This invention relates to railroad crossguard bars 9, 9 are disposed inside of the rail jug sections 2, 2 and 4, 4, as shown, these guard Generally stated, the object of the invenbars having tapered portions 10, 10 and tion is to provide a novel and improved connotches 11, 11, as shown. The bars 6, 6 are, 5 struction that will eliminate or tend to elimyieldingly'held against the inner sides of the inate, the jolting and jarring and bumping rails by the coiled springs 12 on the bolts 13, of the wheels as they pass over the joints'bewhich latter are anchored at one end to the tween the different parts of the crossing, rails and provided at their other ends with thereby to not only save wear and tear on the Washers and nuts 14, whereby these springs inate more or less wear and tear on the rollaway from the rails. Similar springs 15 and 1 t k as n, similar bolts 16 hold the bars 9, 9 normally It is also an object to provide certain deagainst the inner'sides of the rails 2, 2 and tails and features of construction and combi- 4, 4, as shown. Four stationary blocks 1? are ciency and the desirability of a railroad rails, with their beveled faces opposite the crossing of this particular character. lOeVels f th apered portions 7, 7 and 10, 10, To the foregoing and other useful ends, the in the manner illustrated, with slight spaces invention consists in the matters hereinafter be ween the beveled surfaces at the eight companying draw1ngs,in Which, With th s construction, car wheels in or- Fig. 1 is a plan of a railroad crossing inder to cross from the rails 1, 1 to the rails 3, 3 volving the principles of the invention. will cause inward movementjof the guard Fig. 2 is a vertical section on line 22 in bars 6, as theflanges of the wheels enter be- 1, tween these bars and the rails, as shown in 5 ig. 3 is an'enlarged vertical section on Fig. 4 of the drawings, and thewheels will line 3+8 in Fig. 1, showing theparts in nortravel smoothly from the rails 1, 1 on to the mal position. portions. 10, 10'of the'bars 9, 9, and overthe Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3,'but showad] acent blocks 17 and on to the rails 3,3 withingthe parts in the relative positions ast h v g CFOSSefl any 1 1 ro gh joints g0 sumed thereby when the car wheels are passhat will cause any'perceptible bumping or in o th ro i jolting of the wheelswhile traveling across ig. 5 is an enlarged detail section on line the crossing construction. Inasimilarw'ay, 5-5 in Fig. 1. car wheels passing from the r ails2, 2 on to Fig, 6 is an enlarged detail section on the rails 4, 4 Will force the bars 9, 9 toward 5 line 6--6 in Fig, 1, V r eachother, as the flanges enter between these Fig. 7 is a perspective of one of the parts bars and the rails, and the wheels will then of the railroad crossing. V travel smoothly on to the portions 7,7 of the Fig. 8 is a si'milar view of another part of bars 6, 6', and over the adjacent blocksl7, on the construction shown and described. to the rails 4, 4, without any perceptible, or As thus, illustrated, the invention coinat least with no very perceptible, jolting or prises four pairs of rail sections 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, '3

V arring of the wheels onthe different parts and 4, 4, arranged to provide a rightangle of the crossing. The flanges of. the wheels track crossing, these rail sectionsbeingordipassing from. the rails 1, 1f tothe rails 3, 3 nary steel railsbrought tightly togetherto will travel through the notches 11,'11',while form right angles or corners 5 at their juncthe flanges of wheels passing from rails 2, 2 tions, as shown. The guard bars 6 are disto rails 4, .4 will pass throu'gh the notches 8, 8, posed insideiof the rail sections, 1, 1 and S, 3, in a manner that will be readily understood. as shown, and are provided with tapered po'r- As in their normal positions, the parts ofthe tions 7 7 and notches 8, 8, as shown. Similar crossing are all tightly together, where the by the flanges of the wheels travel thereon, except between the beveled faces of the parts 7, 7, 10, 10 and 17, there will practically never be a time when the tread of a wheel will be required to jump across an open joint between any parts of the crossing, but, to the contrary, will always travel over a tight joint without any perceptible, or at least any very perceptible, jarring or jolting. When the wheels travel over the points of the tapered portions 10, 10, it will be understood that the treads of the wheels are broad enough to prevent any j olting or jarring at these points, because of the oblique joint formed by the beveled faces referred to. In other words, the joints at these eight points 18, 18 and 19, 19 are oblique and are not at right angles to the direction of travel of the treads of the wheels, and hence there is no jolting orjarring at these points, which would be otherwise if these joints were open joints extending at right angles to the rails or to the path of travel of the treads oi? the wheels. There are no flange receiving notches or gaps formed in the rails, inthe path of travel of the treads of the wheels, the only notches to receive wheel flanges being the notches 8, 8, and 11, 11, but these notches are not in the paths of travel of the treads of the wheels, and consequently such notches are not productive of any jolting or jarring as the wheels travel acrossthe construction forming the crossing. Of course,'the guard bars are forced away from the inner sides of the rails, by the flanges of the wheels, but this does not affect the close contact of the other guard bars with their rails, so that normally closed joints are possible between the inner sides of the guard bars and the inner sidesof the rails, in the path of the treads of the wheels, whether crossing in one direction or the other. When the wheels are traveling from the rails 1,1 to the rails 3', 3, it will be seen that the joints between the ends of the rails 1, l and the inner side of the adjacent bar 9 are closed, and, similarly, at such time the joints between the other bar 9 Landthe adjacent ends of the rails 3, 3 are closed, thus providing practically a continuous and unbroken rail tread surface from the rails 1, 1 to the rails 3, 3 1 01 the wheels to travel upon. Similarly, if the wheels are traveling from the rails 2, 2 to the rails 4, l it will be seen that at such time the joints between the inner sides of the bars 6, 6 and the inner sides of the railsl, l and 3, 3 are closed,

,so that again the wheels travel smoothly without j olting or jarring. In other words, automatic or self-closing flange gaps are provided in the tread paths ofthe crossing, which gaps are normally closed, but which are so arranged that one set of gaps will be opened wheels traveling in one direction, without opening the flange gaps for wheels traveling ina direction at right angles thereto, whereby the only gaps that are ever open are those which necessarily open to receive the flanges oi": the wheels, the other set of gaps, whichever it may be, remaining closed and undisturbed, whereby all wheel treads travel on the treads of the crossing construction without encountering any open gaps.

Thus the movable wheel supporting elements 10 project between the bars 6 and the blocks 17, while the similar elements 7 project between the bars 9 and the blocks 17, each of these wedge shaped movable elements proj ecting from its bar into a wedge shaped space formed between another bar and one of the stationary blocks. In this way, while the wheels are traveling over the crossing, the wedge shaped movable elements are embraced between the wheel flanges inside and the blocks 17 outside, and in this way said blocks are in position to resist any outward distortion of the tapered movable elements, by the wheel flanges, but slight space is left at 18 and 19 to permit endwise displacement of these tapered elements 7 and 10 in the man ner described.

What- I claim as my invention is:

1. A railroad track crossing comprising rail sections arranged with their end portions together, where one track crosses another at an angle, instrumentalities comprising movable wheel supporting elements torming with said rails normally closed gaps in each track of said crossing construction for the flanges of the wheels and providing practically continuous wheel tread paths from one side to the other of the crossing for supporting wheels traveling at either angle over the crossing, every movable wheel supporting element in each wheel path being rigidly connected to a similar element in the other path parallel thereto, fixed wheel supports disposed outside and with their inner sides in close juxtaposition to the outer sides of said movable eleinents,whereby said movable elements are embraced between the flanges of the wheels inside and said fixed wheel supports outside, with sufficient-space between side of each movable element and the outer the inner side of each fixed support to per elements,

mit displacement of said movable shifting said elements whereby and means for said gaps are all normally closed.

2. A structure as specified in claim 1, said instrume'ntalities comprising two pairs of laterally movable the rails, normally against the inner sides'oi the rails, said pairs being to each other, which latter angle is the same ,as said first mentioned angle, each bar being rigid from oneend to the other and extend ing across from one side of the crossing to flanges of the wheels, and said means comprising springs normally holding all of the guard bars against the inner sides of therail guard bars disposed inside disposed at an angle the other, with notches in said bars for the V 8. A. structure as specified in claim 1, said 'instrumentalities comprising two pairs of laterally movable guard bars disposed inside the rails, normally against the inner sides of the rails, said bars being disposed at an angle to each other, which latter angle is the same as said first mentioned angle, each bar being rigid from one end to the other and extending across from one side of the crossing to the other, with notches in said bars for the flanges of the wheels, and said means comprising springs normally holding all of the guard bars against the inner sides of the rail sections, said guard bars having inner tapered integral portions with outer beveled sides,

forming said movable wheel supporting ele- I ments, and said instrumentalities also comprising stationary blocks forming said fixed wheel supports and having inner beveled faces normally spaced a distance from the beveled outer sides of said tapered portions, providing oblique joints in the tread paths over which the treads of the wheels may roll comparatively smoothly, the middle portions of said bars normally engaging the inner sides of said movable elements and fixed wheel supports, whereby each movable element projects from its bar into a tapered space between another bar and one of said blocks.

4. A structure as specified in claim 1, each said wheel supporting element being movable longitudinally of its allotted wheel tread path. 7

5. A structure as specified in claim '1, each of said movable wheel supporting elements being movable longitudinally of its allotted Wheel tread path thereon, each said movable element being tapered on its outer side from one side of each track toward the other side, with the inner side of each said tapered element straight and in alinement with the inner sides of the rail treads, and four stationary blocks forming said fixed wheel supports and having beveled, and tapered ends co-operating with straight inner side between its two bevels in with the inner sides of the rails, and each block having an outer side that day of Ocis longer than its said inner side.

Specification signed this 30th tober 1928. V

' LEWIS ALEXANDER.

said tapered elements to provide said wheel tread paths, each block having a I 

